CNOW Week of Oct. 18, 2021
This week's notices:
- Cosponsor LRB 4144/1 & LRB-5025/1: Best Practices for Hunter Safety
- Cosponsor LRB 4949: Recognizing Indigenous Peoples Day
- Cosponsor LRB 0740/1: Expanding the Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) Programs
- Cosponsor LRB 1550/1: Supporting Third Party Financing for Solar Energy
- Oppose SB 563: Creating Conditions for Chronic Wasting Disease
- Oppose SB 609: Mandating Pheasant Stocking Quotas
- Oppose SB 611: Free-For-All Hunter Field Testing
- Oppose SB 612: Mandating Fish Stocking Quotas
- Oppose SB 618: Arbitrary Administrative Rule Repeal
Cosponsor LRB 4144/1 & LRB 5025/1: Best Practices for Hunter Safety
Wisconsin Conservation Voters urges you to cosponsor LRB 4144/1 & LRB-5025/1, which are being circulated for cosponsorship.
Comprehensive hunter education programs ensure that every Wisconsinite has access to the same information about hunter safety and ethics-related responsibilities. LRB 4144/1 & LRB 5025/1 would require the DNR to offer in-person field training for Wisconsinites under 18 who wish to receive their hunter education certification. This is an important addition to current requirements, and will help ensure every hunter is proficient in safety and ethics practices critical to maintaining our sporting heritage.
Cosponsor LRB 4949: Recognizing Indigenous Peoples Day
Wisconsin Conservation Voters urges you to cosponsor LRB 4949, which is being circulated for co-sponsorship.
Wisconsin is home to eleven federally-recognized Native Nations. Indigenous Wisconsinites are the original stewards of the places we all love, and leaders in the fight to protect our air, land, and water. LRB 4949 would establish the second Monday in October as “Indigenous Peoples Day,” moving us a step toward recognizing and celebrating Indigenous Peoples’ central role in the past, present, and future of our State.Cosponsor LRB 0740/1: Expanding the Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) Programs
Wisconsin Conservation Voters urges you to cosponsor LRB 0740/1, which is being circulated for co-sponsorship.
Wisconsin’s Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) program has been a key tool for incentivizing building improvements that support energy efficiency, renewable energy, and water conservation. LRB 0740/1 would expand financeable projects under PACE, to include energy reliability improvements, weather-related resiliency projects, electric vehicle charging infrastructure, and stormwater control measures. These are important additions that would add to the ongoing success of the PACE program.Cosponsor LRB 1550/1: Supporting Third Party Financing for Solar Energy
Wisconsin Conservation voters urges you to cosponsor LRB 1550/1, which is being circulated for co-sponsorship.
To ensure that every Wisconsinite has access to affordable clean energy, we need to expand access to solar within historically marginalized communities and underrepresented markets. More Wisconsinites would have access to clean energy if they had the ability to lease or lease-to-own their panels, rather than needing to spend thousands of upfront dollars to purchase and install them. LRB 1550/1 would align Wisconsin with other states across the nation in allowing third party solar financing for homeowners, nonprofits, schools, and local governments, thereby ensuring that Wisconsin can meet clean energy goals and create good-paying jobs.
Oppose SB 563: Creating Conditions for Chronic Wasting Disease
Wisconsin Conservation Voters urges you to oppose SB 609, which is before the Senate Committee on Sporting Heritage, Small Business, and Rural Issues on Tuesday.
We need to do everything we can to limit the spread of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), a fatal, infectious nervous system disease often associated with farm-raised deer. SB 563 would make changes to Wisconsin law so that farm-raised bison, buffalo, and antelopes could be hunted in the same way as farm-raised deer. Given existing CWD-related concerns with how we manage farm-raised deer, we should not be creating new opportunities for the disease to spread.
Oppose SB 609: Mandating Pheasant Stocking Quotas
Wisconsin Conservation Voters urges you to oppose SB 609, which is before the Senate Committee on Sporting Heritage, Small Business, and Rural Issues on Tuesday.
To protect the health of all species in our state, we need to listen to conservation experts who make decisions based on best practices in science-based management. This is especially true when it comes to introducing legislation that sets specific stocking quotas for any species. SB 609 would invert the ideal process for policy development by creating an arbitrary, legislature-led pheasant stocking quota. This would undermine the DNR’s capacity to implement adaptable, science-led management approaches to ensure that the entire ecosystem is being maintained.
Oppose SB 611 Free-For-All Hunter Field Testing
Wisconsin Conservation Voters urges you to oppose SB 611, which is before the Senate Committee on Sporting Heritage, Small Business, and Rural Issues on Tuesday.
Wisconsin’s hunter education programs ensure that every Wisconsinite has access to the same information about hunter safety and ethics-related responsibilities. SB 611 would create an exemption to the in-person field testing requirement for this program, allowing an individual to complete this piece of the requirement if they participate in a mentored hunt. While mentorship is important for the education and safety training of those who want to hunt, it should not substitute for a proven program that ensures every hunter is proficient in safety and ethics practices critical to maintaining our sporting heritage.
Oppose SB 612: Mandating Fish Stocking Quotas
Wisconsin Conservation Voters urges you to oppose SB 612, which is before the Senate Committee on Sporting Heritage, Small Business, and Rural Issues on Tuesday.
To protect the health of the Great Lakes, we need to follow the lead of conservation experts who make decisions based on best practices in science-based management. This is especially true when it comes to introducing legislation that sets specific stocking quotas. SB 612 would invert the ideal process for policy development by creating an arbitrary, legislature-led brook trout stocking quota for Lake Michigan. This would undermine the DNR’s capacity to implement adaptable, science-led lake management approaches that protect the health of the ecosystem.
Oppose SB 618: Arbitrary Administrative Rule Repeal
Wisconsin Conservation Voters urges you to oppose SB 618, which is before the Senate Committee on Sporting Heritage, Small Business, and Rural Issues on Tuesday.
Administrative rules are central to the implementation of statutes enacted by the Wisconsin Legislature. These rules are typically developed over the course of nearly three years, in close consultation with subject matter experts, government officials, and the public. SB 618 would require that for every new rule that the DNR promulgates related to hunting, fishing, or trapping, they must repeal three existing rules related to hunting, fishing, or trapping. This arbitrary requirement disregards the intensive stakeholder input and vetting that goes into establishing new rules, and the beneficial impact that rules have on the protection of our environment.
Conservation Notices of the Week (CNOW) announces the pro-conservation positions on issues before the senate, assembly and/or governor in the week ahead to state legislators. Others wishing to follow activities in the state legislature also receive CNOW, including legislative staff, conservation voters, and media. All of these issues are tracked on the Vote Tracker. Issues in the CNOW may appear in the Conservation Scorecard.